Shows / Ta Shma
Ta Shma
Bringing you recent lectures, classes, and programs from the Hadar Institute, Ta Shma is where you get to listen in on the beit midrash. Come and listen on the go, at home, or wherever you are. Hosted by Rabbi Avi Killip of the Hadar Institute.
Episodes
- Ta Shma
R. Aviva Richman on Parashat Pinchas: Moshe's Mitzvah for God
In this week’s parashah, we find a slight variation on one of the most common verses in the Torah. This minor shift in words reflects a profound revolution. At…
- Ta Shma
R. Yitz Greenberg: The Triumph of Life, Part 2
In the second part of his lecture series, Rabbi Yitz Greenberg speaks with Rabbi Aaron Alexander. Rabbi Greenberg explores the commandment to have children…
- Ta Shma
R. Aviva Richman on Parashat Balak: A People’s Prophet, A Prophet’s People
In Parashat Balak, the ruler of Moav calls on Bilam to curse Israel. God ends up putting words of blessing in his mouth, and he speaks prophetically about the…
- Ta Shma
R. Yitz Greenberg: The Triumph of Life, Part 1
What does it mean to choose life in an imperfect world? Rabbi Yitz Greenberg, in conversation with Rabbi Lauren Holtzblatt, offers examples of how Judaism…
- Ta Shma
R. Aviva Richman on Parashat Chukkat: Critique and Creativity
In Parashat Chukkat, the people complain again about their food in the wilderness, but this complaint is different from earlier complaints. They don’t remember…
- Ta Shma
R. Aviva Richman on Parashat Korach: Fire and Flower
In Parashat Korach, there are multiple accusations against Moshe and Aharon’s leadership and dramatic responses. Instead of viewing these through the lens of…
- Ta Shma
Dena Weiss: Making Shabbat Your Own, Part 2
Dena Weiss studies the Meor Einayim and explores what it means to refrain from spiritual work, not just physical labor, on Shabbat. This lecture is part 2 in a…
- Ta Shma
R. Aviva Richman on Parashat Shelach: Believing in Ourselves, Owning Our Inheritance
In Parashat Shelach, twelve scouts scope out the promised land. They are on a mission to gain answers to specific questions, some about the land itself, and…
- Ta Shma
R. Shai Held: Wanting God Near Us
Rabbi Shai Held conducts a close reading of Psalm 139. He looks at the original Hebrew and multiple translations, arguing that the literary ambiguity showcases…
- Ta Shma
R. Aviva Richman on Parashat BeHa'alotekha: A Small and Steady Light
In the simple instruction to kindle lamps in the mishkan, our interpretive tradition leaps into a theological spiral. What is the relationship between human…
- Ta Shma
R. Avi Strausberg: I Cannot Tell a Lie... Or Can I?
If someone you wouldn’t endorse asks you for a recommendation, what would you say? Discussing the ethics around truth and lying, Rabbi Avi Strausberg presents…
- Ta Shma
R. Aviva Richman on Parashat Naso: One Mitzvah at a Time
Parashat Naso includes the ritual of sotah. A husband brings his wife whom he suspects of adultery to the mikdash (sanctuary) where a kohen gives her a potion…
- Ta Shma
R. Tali Adler: Words That Cannot Be Written
It's easy to emphasize the giving of the written Torah at Mt. Sinai. But what if the focus should be on Oral Torah? R. Tali Adler looks at the essential role…
- Ta Shma
R. Aviva Richman on Parashat Bemidbar: Dismantling Holiness with Love
As Israel traveled through the desert, they frequently erected the mishkan (tabernacle) anew. This means that they also deconstructed the mishkan frequently…
- Ta Shma
R. Aviva Richman on Parashat BeHukotai: From Curse to Catalyst
The curses of BeHukotai resonate, and we can point to various societal failures that have contributed to this reality, reasons for God to be “angry” at us…
- Ta Shma
Dena Weiss: Making Shabbat Your Own
What does it mean to have respect for Shabbat? Dena Weiss discusses how we can respect shabbat by making the day feel different through our clothing choices.
- Ta Shma
R. Aviva Richman on Parashat Behar: Shemittah - A Restrained and Wild Love
Shemittah (the sabbatical year) is considered one of the hardest mitzvot. But the mitzvah might not only be about inculcating discipline to the extreme. We can…
- Ta Shma
R. Shai Held and Shira Hecht-Koller: The World as a Gift
Rabbi Shai Held and Shira Hecht-Koller take a deep dive into Psalm 104. Rabbi Shai Held explores the psalm line by line while Shira Hecht-Koller considers the…
- Ta Shma
R. Aviva Richman on Parashat Emor: God Who Desires Desire
Parashat Kedoshim explored the centrality of consent in a relationship with God, that one can’t be “coerced” to bring an offering. The importance of our will…
- Ta Shma
Dena Weiss: Pride and Privilege
What is our responsibility towards others who may feel jealous of what we have? Dena Weiss explores how to think about privilege and how we can act in a way…
- Ta Shma
R. Aviva Richman on Parashat Kedoshim: Radical Ratzon
According to many interpreters, we achieve kedushah by curbing our desire. Holiness, in this view, inextricably entails suppression of our will. Taken to its…
- Ta Shma
R. Shai Held: Theology in a Time of Climate Emergency
We live in a time of unprecedented climate emergency: greenhouse gas emissions are causing vast and irreversible changes to the the Earth’s climate. How should…
- Ta Shma
R. Ethan Tucker: Midrash and Rabbinic Imagination, Part 3
In some rabbinic midrashim, biblical characters cross over into different story lines, creating whole new backgrounds for their characters. Rabbi Ethan Tucker…
- Ta Shma
R. Aviva Richman on Parashat Metzora: Speech That Heals
Last week, in Parashat Tazria, we saw that our capability to be full partners in Torah is anchored in the messy and sometimes disorienting details of our…
- Ta Shma
R. Ethan Tucker: Midrash and the Rabbinic Imagination, Part 2
>Who are Hur, Yair ben Menashe, and Serah bat Asher and why do these minor biblical characters appear in midrash far removed from their own stories? Rabbi…
- Ta Shma
R. Aviva Richman on Parashat Tazria: Torah Rooted in the Real
Tazria is a parashah that people often find more repelling than compelling. Why so many words dedicated to bodily emissions and the intricate appearance of…
- Ta Shma
R. Ethan Tucker: Midrash and the Rabbinic Imagination, Part 1
When a midrash seems so fantastical and outlandish that you conclude it must be made up, you are probably not reading the text as closely as the midrash. Rabbi…
- Ta Shma
R. Aviva Richman on Parashat Shemini: Whiplash and Endurance
It is hard to imagine a parashah more devastating than Shemini, or more of a testament to the stamina of enduring relationship despite all. When we experience…
- Ta Shma
R. Avi Strausberg: The Danger of Hope
In times of despair and sadness, hope plays an important role. But can there be danger from too much hope? R.Avi Strausberg explores a wide variety of sources…
- Ta Shma
R. Aviva Richman on Parashat Tzav: Constancy and Intermittence
Parashat Tzav opens with an image of constancy, the fire on the altar that always burns, never extinguished. The unextinguished fire is not just practical…
- Ta Shma
R. Aviva Richman on Parashat Vayikra: "Calling In"
The first verse in Vayikra seems mundane and predictable; God speaks to Moshe in the mishkan (tabernacle), as God does throughout much of the Torah. Yet, the…
- Ta Shma
Dena Weiss: The Lost Sons of Avraham
How can Avraham bear to sacrifice his son Yitzchak without any show of emotion or despair? Dena Weiss offers an explanation to this question, using midrash to…
- Ta Shma
R. Aviva Richman on Parashat Pekudei: Shifting Expectations
The Book of Shemot ends in a striking tension: God’s presence fills the mishkan but also precludes Moshe from entering. Having shepherded the people into…
- Ta Shma
R. Elie Kaunfer: The Strange Case of Moshe's Death
In rabbinic midrash, Moshe brings his case for immortality to God. What does Moshe argue and why does he believe he should be exempt from death? As R. Elie…
- Ta Shma
R. Aviva Richman on Parashat VaYakhel: Moshe's Gamble
There is a classic debate about the order of the Torah with respect to the passages about the mishkan (tabernacle) and the golden calf. In one view, it was…
- Ta Shma
R. Aviva Richman on Parashat Ki Tissa: A Radical Shabbat
For most of the week, and most of our lives, we devote ourselves to the hard work of slowly getting closer to what we most hope for and long for, in terms of…
- Ta Shma
R. Shai Held: When Mercy Trumps Justice
“God said, 'let us make human beings in our image'” (Genesis 1:26). Who is God speaking to and what does it mean to be made in God’s image? Rabbi Shai Held…
- Ta Shma
R. Aviva Richman on Parashat Tetzaveh: The Pulse of Prayer
Terumah and Tetzaveh offer a visual landscape of the mishkan, its structure, its furnishings and the dress of those who served in it. One thing that is lacking…
- Ta Shma
R. Avi Killip: Modern Women's Midrash as a Tool for Reading our Most Difficult Texts
For centuries, midrash has helped reconcile problematic, troubling, and hurtful texts by understanding them in a new light. In this lecture, Rabbi Avi Killip…
- Ta Shma
R. Aviva Richman on Parashat Terumah: Redemptive Relationship, Epilogue
Parashat Terumah brings us to what is a sort of epilogue—though also, in some ways, a prologue—of the love story in three scenes we saw between Israel and God…
- Ta Shma
R. Aviva Richman on Parashat Mishpatim: Undoing Slavery and Acquiring Ourselves
The very first law of the extended laws of Parashat Mishpatim starts with a horrifying phrase: “When you acquire a Hebrew slave.” We were just, two weeks ago…
- Ta Shma
R. Yitz Greenberg: The Great, Mighty, and Awesome God Isn't What God Used to Be
The Rabbis lived in a very different world from the biblical “great, mighty, and awesome” God. Rabbi Yitz Greenberg explains how the Rabbis interpreted this…
- Ta Shma
R. Aviva Richman on Parashat Yitro: Redemptive Relationship, Part 3
In Parashat Yitro we come to Sinai, the final formative scene in reading the Exodus as a story of how Israel and God "fell in love." Strands of our tradition…
- Ta Shma
R. Aviva Richman on Tu Bishvat and MLK Day: Fruit Trees, Access, and Equity
In recent decades, Tu Bishvat has become a holiday for trees and to raise awareness and concern for our natural environment. This year, as we celebrate Tu…
- Ta Shma
R. Aviva Richman on Parashat BeShallach: Redemptive Relationship, Part 2
Last week, we began an exploration of the different stories of how Israel “fell in love” with God. Far from a naive picture of the beloved who swoops in to…
- Ta Shma
R. Aviva Richman on Parashat Bo: Redemptive Relationship, Part 1
Our tradition invites us to explore the nature of redemptive relationship. Instead of reading the Exodus as primarily historical or mythic, a prominent strand…
- Ta Shma
R. Shai Held: What if Shir HaShirim Really is an Allegory After All?
Some people see Shir HaShirim, the Song of Songs, as an allegory for the love between God and Israel. Some see it simply as a love poem. But what if it’s…
- Ta Shma
R. Aviva Richman on Parashat Va’Era: Calling God Into Being
Sometimes we need a new name for God. The ways we’ve known God so far may feel limited, inadequate, or even disappointing. Moshe is lucky enough to have God…
- Ta Shma
R. Aviva Richman on Parashat Shemot: Seeds of Slavery
Where does our story of slavery begin? These are times when our own ancestors mistreated or enslaved others, perhaps laying the groundwork for the kind of…
- Ta Shma
R. Avi Strausberg: Bones of My Bones, Flesh of My Flesh
Get to the roots of gender in the Torah by turning to the opening narratives of creation in Genesis 1 and 2. What might these two different accounts of the…
- Ta Shma
R. Aviva Richman on Parashat VaYechi: Unfinished Reconciliation
Yosef and his family are reunited, and we might hope to find meaningful resolution and reconciliation between brothers. Instead, we discover communication…
- Ta Shma
R. Tali Adler: Murder in a Midrashic Key
In the Bible, where characters are generally multifaceted, the first murderer in the Bible, is a notable exception -- until we consider the world of midrash…
- Ta Shma
R. Aviva Richman on Parashat VaYigash: Leaning In - With Reckless Compassion
What is the tone of Yehudah’s approach to Yosef? Surprisingly, early traditions emphasize the aggressiveness of the encounter, suggesting that Yehudah…
- Ta Shma
R. Aviva Richman on Parashat VaYeishev: Sexual Ethics, Part 2 - Integrity
In Parashat VaYeishev, Yosef repeatedly resists the advances of Potifar’s wife. In the wake of modern and contemporary sexual revolutions, there has been…
- Ta Shma
R. Aviva Richman on Parashat VaYishlach: Sexual Ethics, Part 1 - Voice and Dignity
The most devastating part of the story of Dinah is that the Torah does not share Dinah’s perspective. We have no idea if this was “the rape of Dinah” or an…
- Ta Shma
R. Aviva Richman: Rain, Dew, Wind, and Storm: The Quest for Nourishing Torah
Through a discussion of midrashim on the Book of Devarim, Rabbi Aviva Richman dives into the various roles of Torah as intermediary, a place for grief, joy…
- Ta Shma
R. Aviva Richman on Parashat VaYeitzei: Facing Our Blessings, Part 2
"Recognition”—or lack thereof—emerges at pivotal moments of Yaakov's unfolding story, and reverberates to his children as well. Following the theme of…
- Ta Shma
Book Talk Ft. Rachel Sharona Lewis and Sigal Samuel
What does a fictional mystery-solving queer woman rabbi have in common with a real-life 17th-century woman rabbi, scholar, and miracle-worker? In this episode…
- Ta Shma
R. Aviva Richman on Toldot: Facing Our Blessings, Part 1
R. Aviva Richman shares her thoughts on Parashat Toldot. When Yitzhak blesses Ya’akov, disguised as Esav, it introduces a gap between being seen for who we are…
- Ta Shma
R. Tali Adler: The Torah of Reopening Part 3
In this episode, Rav Tali dives into the overall picture of what returning and rebuilding will look like in the communal spaces in our lives. What might it…